User:CWH/Seven Gentlemen Incident

7 Gentleman Released, Suzhou July 31, 1936 (Wang Zaoshi, Shi Liang, Zhang Naiqi, Shen Junru, Sha Qianli, Li Gongbu, and Zou Taofen)

Seven Gentlemen Incident (Zh 七君子事件 Qi zhunzi shibian) of 1936 was the arrest, trial, and release of seven prominent Chinese intellectual leaders who urged the Nationalist government of China to resist Japan more forcefully.

Background

From the late 1920s, the newly established Nationalist government of the Republic of China found that military resistance to Japanese expansion in China was not successful, but there was widespread protest to Chiang Kai-shek's policy of biding time while building military power. In the spring of 1936, Soong Qingling, the widow of Sun Yat-sen and sister-in-law of Chiang Kai-shek, joined with leftist leaders to organize the non-partisan National Salvation Association (救国联合 Jiuguo lianhui).

On July 15, 1936 the Association issued a public demand that the government end the civil war with the Communists, release prisoners held for political beliefs, and organize a new government that would include all parties willing to fight Japan. On November 12 they held a rally in Shanghai to mobilize the common people. Nationalist agents arrested the seven on November 23, but hesitated to put them on trial until the following spring. Public presssure and the prospect of war with Japan led the government to release the seven on July 31, 1937.

The seven were:

• Li Gongpu
• Sha Qianli Journalist
• Shi Liang Lawyer, and only woman in the group
• Shen Junru Lawyer
• Wang Zaoshi Lawyer and philosopher
• Zhang Naiqi Banker
• Zou Taofen Journalist

References

• Coble, Parks M. (1991). Facing Japan: Chinese Politics and Japanese Imperialism, 1931-1937. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies Distributed by Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674775309., pp. 335-342.

• Shan, Patrick Fuliang (2013). "Demythologizing Politicized Myths: A New Interpretation of the Seven Gentlemen Incident". Frontiers of History in China. 8 (1): 51–77. doi:10.3868/s020-002-013-0004-6.

External links

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